If you have any doubts about teacher pay, read the New York Times article on what some teachers make.

Michelle Gibbar, a teacher at a High School south of Tucson makes $43,000, despite having 20 years of experience. Another Arizona teacher, Jose Coca, at Kyrene Middle School, gets $46,000 with 12 years of experience.

Then there’s the data. Washington Post in 2016 cited a study of teacher pay by  Economic Policy Institute, with this finding.

Average weekly wages (inflation adjusted) of public-sector teachers decreased $30 per week from 1996 to 2015, from $1,122 to $1,092 (in 2015 dollars). In contrast, weekly wages of all college graduates rose from $1,292 to $1,416 over this period.

And here’s this visual if you don’t want to read the reports: It’s the Percent Change in Constant Teacher Salary from 2000 to 2017. (Courtesy public.tableau.com).Click to see interactive chart.